


and just forget the world

by localopa



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Amnesia AU, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, car crash, kind of??? if you squint it is, liam niall & zayn r only mentioned soz, sorry boys, well liam plays a bigger role but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:20:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24766063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/localopa/pseuds/localopa
Summary: harry’s in a car crash. louis won’t leave his side.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 66





	and just forget the world

**Author's Note:**

> i’ve had this one in my drafts FOREVER and now i finally have written it. i don’t know where this idea came from but i’m glad it came from somewhere. thanks to the lovely people, rachel and cade, for helping me with this fic as well as kirstin my lovely boyfriend for betaing this fic. title of this piece is from chasing cars by snow patrol. enjoy.
> 
> xx. oliver

harry wakes up to the sound of beeping, a steady beeping. his eyes aren’t open but he can tell the room is already too bright for him. he groans, trying to lift his right hand and feeling resistance. why is there resistance? 

“harry?” a voice croaks, it sounds familiar. “are you awake?”

he groans again and, this time, his eyes open. he’s right, it is too bright. it’s white, disturbingly white, and the beeping won’t stop. there’s something in his nose and his hand has an iv in it. what the fuck happened?

“oh, thank god,” the voice from earlier says. there’s pressure on his hand that won’t leave, either. looking down, it’s because someone’s holding it. “liam, go get the nurse.”

there’s some shuffling, presumingly liam leaving the room to go get a nurse. so, is he in the hospital? what happened that he’s in the hospital?

the hand doesn’t move from his as the nurse enters the room. “well, good morning, harry!” she says, voice filled with amusement. “i’m just going to check over you and i’ll be out of your hair.” she makes her rounds, moving faster than harry’s ever seen, or maybe it’s just him. she disappears a moment later, telling him a doctor will be in shortly. 

harry turns his head to find blue eyes staring at him. they’re a bit watery, if he squints hard enough he can see tear marks on his face. he looks down at his hand, where it’s joined with the blue eyed person, and then back up at him. 

“who are you?” he croaks. 

blue eyes sniffles. “harry? you know who i am.” he looks at someone out of harry’s line of sight. “harry knows who i am, right, liam?”

liam doesn’t get a chance to answer before harry slowly shakes his head. “why are you holding my hand? who are you?”

“louis, i think you should-“ 

there’s a sharp squeeze of his hand, followed by blue eyes - presumably louis - shaking his head. “liam, he has to know me. i’ve been his best mate for years.” he looks back at harry. “you know me, right?”

harry can see the sadness in his eyes, desperately pleading for him to remember who he is. he wants to be able to tell him that, yes, he does remember, but those blue eyes… he’d remember a pair of eyes like that. shaking his head, he frowns. “i don’t.”

tears well up in louis’ eyes, and suddenly his hand is empty and he’s gone from the room. harry looks over to where he thinks liam is, but he’s gone, too, probably after louis. there’s loud voices on the other side of his door, going back and forth about something. 

the arguing stops a moment later, and louis, liam, and a new person who looks to be the doctor come into the room. 

“hello, harry!” the doctor greets, almost extending a hand to shake his. “i’m dr. miller. can you tell me what you last remember?”

harry swallows. he remembers getting ready for something, a date maybe? he remembers dressing up nice and having a sunflower. he remembers driving to someone’s house and being excited yet nervous, but also remembers he shouldn’t have been nervous at all. the door opens to the place and it reveals the person on the other side and -

nothing. 

harry can’t remember what the person looks like. or who the person is, to begin with. 

harry tells this to the doctor, and he can hear sniffles from somewhere. dr. miller nods, looking through his chart. then, he turns to liam and louis. 

“it looks like he’s suffering from a bit of amnesia. it seems that he can’t remember whoever he was going on a date with, so his brain has blocked out any memories of this person. it may be temporary, or it may be forever.”

“forever?” louis asks, wiping his eyes. “what should we do?”

dr. miller sighs. “the only thing we can really do is wait.” he places a hand on louis’ shoulder. “we’re going to keep him here for a few days to monitor his condition, and you’re more than welcome to stay. just let him rest.” with that, he pats louis twice before turning back to harry. “we’re going to run a ct scan on you, just to be safe. you’re going to be fine, harry.”

dr. miller says a few more things, but harry blocks it out, focusing on louis. now that he’s had a chance to, he can see there's some bruising on him, as well as some bandages. was he in a car accident too? if so, why was he here with harry? louis should be getting checked out if he was in an-

_ oh,  _ harry realized belatedly.  _ he was in the car with me. _

the beeping starts to speed up and, oh, that’s his heart rate. the three men look over at him. immediately, louis comes over to him, picking up his hand and holding it. his thumb rubs over the back of his hand, or what he can hit that isn’t already taken up by the iv. 

“hey,” louis says softly, “everything’s going to be fine.”

weirdly, it calms him. 

-

everything happens so fast, and soon harry’s wheeled away from his ct scan, wheeled back, a nurse telling them that dr. miller will look at the ct scan, be back with the results, and leaves the room. liam also leaves not too long after the nurse leaves, patting harry lightly on the leg. 

louis looks tired in the seat next to him, the bags underneath his eyes prominent. there’s a wrap on the hand not holding his, and his clothes look like they’ve been slept in over and over again. he keeps almost nodding off, head and eyes drooping every minute or two. 

“you should go home,” harry finally says. “i’m fine.”

louis shakes his head. “‘m not leaving.”

harry grimaces as he tries to move, louis putting his hand out to stop him. “don’t, you need rest.”

“i don’t like taking instructions from people i don’t know.”

louis sighs. “you know me. besides, the doctor said you need to rest.”

harry doesn’t argue any further, looking down at their conjoined hands. “are we together?”

the question obviously takes louis off guard, visibly stiffening. he doesn’t answer right away, gnawing at his lip to try to find the right words. “it’s… complicated.”

“how can it be complicated? it’s a yes or no question.”

louis looks away from harry, down at his injured hand. “i don’t think this is the right time to discuss this, harry. you just were in an accident.”

harry rolls his eyes. “i don’t know or remember who you are and yet you’re keen on holding my hand. i’d like to know if we’re together.”

louis gnaws on his lip again, eyes flitting around the room. he’s trying to decide what to say, harry can see it. it takes a while before he says, “technically, no.”

this isn’t what harry was expecting. “what do you mean? ‘technically?’” 

“so,” louis looks back up to harry, “we are best mates. but we were on a date when the accident happened.”

this stuns harry into silence. he wasn’t expecting that. “we were on a date?”

louis nods. “we were. we were driving back to my flat, and we had the right of way. but someone was running a red light and hit the car. you, uh,” he pauses, looking down again. “your side was the side he hit, and you knocked your head pretty badly. it knocked you out, basically. thought i lost you, honestly.” he lets out a humorless laugh. “they checked me out, and i was pretty much fine except my arm and some bruises. and i haven’t left your side since they let me back here.”

harry is a little shocked. so he was on a date with louis? why can’t he remember him? 

“oh,” he says in the silence that follows. “i didn’t realize…”

“it’s okay, harry,” louis sighs, leaning his arm and head down on the bed railing. “you’ve been through a lot in the past 24 hours. just focus on getting better.”

harry bites his lip, looking at louis as he seems to try to rest. he squeezes his hand, waiting until louis looks up to him before speaking. “so we’re not together?”

louis shakes his head. “technically, yes and no. we’ve been on a few dates, but we’re not exclusive.”

harry swallows. he feels terrible, for some reason. louis obviously cares about him, and he can’t even remember him. he doesn’t understand why he can’t remember someone who’s supposed to be his best friend. 

“hey,” louis lets go of harry’s hand and brings it up to his face, wiping away a tear. “don’t get frustrated. it’s going to be okay.”

harry doesn’t really believe it will.

-

harry only stayed in the hospital for two days, being given pain meds and instructions to stay with a friend for at least a week. it takes some arguing on liam’s part, but they agreed to louis staying with him in harry’s flat. liam says he doesn’t trust his roommate to help, since he’s busy, and louis works from home so it won’t disrupt his schedule as much. 

harry just feels guilty for not remembering who louis is. 

they gave harry his phone back after coming back with the results of his ct scan. the results were nothing to write home about, everything looked fine. harry took to scrolling through social media when louis was asleep at his bedside, careful not to wake him up. he learns they’re close, like incredibly close. he figures they've known each other for years at this point, and wonders why they only just recently started to try and date. 

he won’t lie, louis is an incredibly attractive man. from what harry has seen of him, he’s got baby blues that make his breath catch whenever he looks his way. there’s crinkles by louis’ eyes from all the smiling he does, and his arse is fantastic. harry’s always known he’s a bum man, but damn. 

what he learns is they have three other friends, liam, niall, and zayn, but they don’t seem as close as him and louis are. they appear in pictures, the five of them, but there are more pictures of him and louis than the group. he learns that louis loves his siblings, his personal page full of his sisters and brother, as well as harry. 

harry wants to ask louis what made them decide to give it a try. give  _ them  _ a try. but he’s scared to find out the answer. 

the car slows in front of an apartment building, harry looking up to see it’s very tall. once it’s stopped, louis comes around to help harry out of the car, despite his protests. louis waves him off and grabs his things before thanking the driver. his grip on harry’s wrist doesn’t falter as they make their way into the building and up the elevator. louis opens the door to his flat once they get there, holding it open for harry and dropping his hand from around his wrist. 

“welcome home,” louis says with a slight chuckle as he gestures to the open space. “i’ll help you to your room and then i’ll get dinner started.”

harry doesn’t say anything as he’s helped to his room, sitting on the side of his bed as louis goes around and makes sure everything’s in its place. he watches him closely, trying to figure out why he thinks louis cooking isn’t a good idea. 

“are you sure?” he finally says, eyebrows knitted together. “aren’t you not a good cook?” 

louis freezes, back tensing. he can hear him swallow as he turns around. “how’d you know that?”

harry shrugs. “had a feeling.”

louis openly gawks at him for a moment too long before shaking himself out of his revere, clearing his throat. “uh, no. i’m not the best, but i can manage a mean mac and cheese.” he forces out a laugh. “i’m going to go do that now,” he gestures towards the door. “you stay here and i’ll bring dinner out to you.”

he quickly leaves the room, leaving harry staring at where he once was. that was weird. is he not supposed to know louis is a bad cook? or is it - oh. he  _ remembers  _ louis isn’t a good cook. that’s what spooked him. 

the rest of the night passes with a blur, and soon harry was falling asleep, wishing that he could remember this blue eye beauty in his flat. 

-

harry wakes up to being shaken by louis, a smile on his tired face when harry finally opens his eyes. 

“hey, made you breakfast,” he gestures to the plate in his hand. “and made you tea.” there’s tea on the bedside table, he notes.

harry smiles in thanks, pushing himself up in bed and leaning against the headboard. he accepts the plate from louis, nibbling on the toast as louis watches. the breakfast consisted of jam on toast and some scrambled eggs, which seemed easy enough to make. he knows the doctor wants him to get back into his normal routine, which he assumes he’s the one who’s cooking. but being taken care of isn’t something he’ll pass up. 

he’s taking a sip of tea when louis clears his throat. “so, uh,” louis reaches up to scratch the back of his neck, “i was thinking of taking you out.”

harry raises his eyebrows. “like a date?”

“no, no,” louis rushes to say, biting his lip. “not right now. i meant, like, taking you out to places that have meaning to us.”

harry blinks at louis, taking another sip of his tea. “like what?”

louis just smiles. “you’ll see.”

-

the special places end up being the site of their first date, a park not too far from where he lives. louis manages to make a picnic basket, full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, water, and a family size bag of lays chips, and spreads a blanket out for them. he smiles at harry as he sets everything up, even hands him a pair of sunglasses. 

“wow,” harry says, a little impressed. “you went all out.”

louis laughs. “this pales in comparison what you did for our first date.”

“what did i do?”

“you ordered us just, like, a shit ton of chinese takeaway. just massive amounts of fried and white rice. we ended up giving most of it to niall and zayn, and we watched as everyone passed us by,” louis sighs, obviously happy with the memory.

harry hums in response, taking a bite of his sandwich. they’re silent for a while, watching people walk around. kids play on the play sets the park has out, people with dogs, other people on dates. it was really nice, just sitting with louis and essentially recreating their first date. 

after a while, they finish their food and lay down on the blanket, close enough that their arms are touching. louis is obviously trying to respect harry’s boundaries, and he respects that. he wonders what it’d be like if this really was their first date, and not just the first date that harry remembers. 

louis is speaking, pointing at something in the sky when harry looks over. his skin is tanner than his, and he can see just the smallest bit of freckles on his cheek. he gets the overwhelming urge to kiss them, to kiss louis. he’s scared to actually kiss louis. but he does kiss him, quickly darting over to kiss the freckles high on his cheek. he feels a bit of deja vu, but he can’t place where it happened before. immediately, louis flushes and looks over at him.

“what was that for?” louis asks, hand reaching up to cover his cheek. 

harry shrugs. “felt like it.”

louis looks away. “that’s what you said on our first date.”

and -

  1. _oh_. 



harry just remembered something. 

he smiles at louis, leaning forward and capturing his lips in a small kiss. when he pulls away, he can see louis is red as a tomato, looking anywhere but harry. 

harry reaches down and laces their fingers together, smiling. his memory will come back, he can feel it. 

-

the next day, harry’s awake before louis, so he takes advantage of that by cooking them breakfast. he cooks a full english, setting the plates out just as louis pads his way into the kitchen. his hair is sticking up everywhere, and he tries to rub the sleep out of his eyes. 

“what’s this?” louis yawns, stretching. his shirt rides up and shows a bit of tummy, harry’s eyes flickering down to it. 

“breakfast,” he shrugs. 

louis seems to take this answer, sitting down at the table. he picks up his fork and begins to eat, watching harry as he does so. “you made my favorite.”

harry rolls his eyes. “everyone loves a full english.”

“yeah, but you put my favorite kind of jam on my toast, and a different one on yours.” louis takes a drink of his tea. “and you made me tea correctly.”

harry freezes, looking at louis. “i did?”

louis nods. “you did.”

suddenly, harry feels fuzzy inside. he hadn’t realized he had remembered those little details. surely, if the little things are coming back, the big things will come, too. 

they eat in relative silence again, making brief conversation and never mentioning what had just happened. he’s starting to understand why they decided to give them a shot. they just  _ click. _ they know each other like the back of their hand, or at least louis does right now. harry is slowly making his way, teasing louis when he spills his beans on his lap.

“oh, and i had this weird dream,” harry starts, pointing his fork across the table. “we were at this club, and we were dancing, and suddenly we were kissing? and someone spilled their drink on us and turned into a dragon.” a fork clatters on a plate, causing harry to look up. “what?”

“um,” louis clears his throat. “that actually happened. besides the whole dragon bit. that was our first kiss.”

the forkful of food stops midway to harry’s mouth as he stares at louis. “you’re serious?”

louis nods. “we were at the club, obviously, and we usually like to dance with each other. the others liked to make fun of us because we always got really into it. but it was, uh, maybe two months ago? that this happened. i don’t remember who leaned in first, but one minute we were dancing, the next your mouth was on mine and it was just like…” he takes a breath, closing his eyes. “it was like an electric zap, fireworks going off kind of adrenaline rush. we nearly had sex that night, but niall pulled us away before we could escape.”

harry just openingly gawks at louis, almost unbelievable in what he said. he remembered their first kiss? “that’s… wow.”

louis smiles. “yeah. it took you about two weeks to work up the courage to ask me after that. brought me a bouquet of a do-“

“dozen sunflowers, because you remind me of the sun,” harry finishes. he has stopped eating all together at this point, too enthralled that he  _ remembers.  _

“yeah, you did say that,” louis laughs. “and i said yes, obviously. the night of the car accident, i was going to ask you to be my boyfriend.”

harry looks at louis in awe, unbelievable. he’s been given this gift of a man, he truly has. louis is a gift from god. “well, is it too late to accept?”

they both laugh, finishing up their food. they move to the couch and spend the day watching shitty television. 

if they end up cuddling and falling asleep on the couch, well, that’s just for them to know. 

-

harry starts keeping a dream journal after that day, convinced that his dreams, besides some details, are actual memories. he goes to louis every day with his dream, to see if it’s accurate to an actual memory. most of the time, it is. 

they go shopping the day after the dream incident, harry wanting to pick out groceries and louis finally lamenting. he spends the trip picking out things louis likes more than things he actually needs, including the soap that smells like what louis uses. 

harry remembers more and more each day, but it’s always the smallest things. like how he likes his fajitas with sour cream and he’ll only drink tea if it’s yorkshire or, for special occasions, peppermint. one night, harry gets something as miniscule as picking louis’ favorite movie out without being told and gets a kiss. 

this, of course, makes harry expect kisses whenever he remembers something of louis. and louis lets him get away with it because it’s harry. 

they go out on days that allow, even if it’s them at a coffee shop while louis works on his job. louis tells him that they used to do this all the time before the accident. 

“i know,” harry says to that. “i remember.”

the answering smile warms harry’s heart. 

-

okay. 

he can do this. 

harry. he can totally do this. 

it’s been a month since the accident, and harry’s gonna ask him out.

him being louis. and out meaning to be his boyfriend. 

oh god, he’s done this before. why is this so hard?

ever since louis went home after the week following the accident, they’ve been in closer contact than before. or so he’s told. he doesn’t remember everything, but he does remember the important things, and that counts for something. they go out on small dates, small excursions with the boys, and even, at one point, went home to visit harry’s family. 

and now, harry is outside of louis’ flat, with a bouquet of sunflowers ( _ “because you remind me of the sun.”), _ and is anxiously awaiting for louis to open his damn door. 

harry bounces in his spot as he waits, biting his lip. he’s fine. he can do this. he can ask louis to be his boyfriend. 

oh god, he’s asking louis to be his boyfriend. 

before harry can make a break away, the door opens and reveals a tired eye louis. his glasses are perched precariously on his nose as he looks to harry with a soft smile. 

“hey,” he greets, leaning up to kiss him. “what’re you doing here?”

harry clears his throat, pulling the flowers out from behind his back. “i wanted to ask you something.” he hands over the flowers, hands immediately going behind his back. “i was wondering if you would do me the honor of being my boyfriend?”

louis stares at him for a long moment, flowers in hand. harry’s eyes are closed and he’s waiting for it, waiting for rejection. time seems to slow down, he holds his breath. and then -

“motherfucker, that was my line.”

harry pops an eye open, looking at louis. “so is that a yes or no?”

“it’s a ‘motherfucker, that was my line. i hate you but god, i love you.’” louis drops the flowers behind him, grabbing harry’s face and kissing him hard.

the kiss is messy, much too messy for something in a public hallway. harry’s hands find their way to louis’ waist, pulling him in close to him. louis’ hands go to his hair and pull hard, causing harry to moan quietly against his lips. his fingers dig into louis’ hips, trying to keep them grounded. 

when they pull away, harry is grinning like an idiot. “so i take that as a yes?”

“take it as you better come in here right now and show your boyfriend a good time.”

and, well.

he can’t deny him that. 

**Author's Note:**

> tell me how i made you cry on tumblr @ voulezloux


End file.
